Animal Advocacy

What it’s Like to Work in a Commercial Chicken Farm

This side of the industry has always been overlooked by the majority of consumers

3 days old chick in a poultry farm // Yuen Long, HK

I used to never think about commercial farming at all. I used to never consider the controversial issue about it, and I admit that I’ve always ignorantly taken farmed meat for granted.

This was until I’ve worked one week on a commercial poultry farm as an intern due to my vet degree. Here are the 5 days that changed me.

Day 1 — The overwhelming start

Adult chickens kept in aisles of crates in a pen house

I was astonished just to walk down the aisles with thousands of chickens surrounding me.

What caught my attention was that a chicken died with the position of its head stuck out of the cage. Later, I found out that it happened because the chicken was trying to reach the food tray outside and ended up suffocating itself between the narrow gaps. As he was explaining, he opened the cage, took the dead animal out, and casually threw it into the bin then carried on working.